The refugee crisis: Is Australia's 'stop the boats' policy the answer?

The Australian government has hit back after an editorial in the New York Times slammed Australia's handing of the influx of migrants and refugees travelling to its shores and advised Europe not to follow suit.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said in a statement released Thursday: "No responsible government could stand idly by in the face of these repeated tragedies. Our policies are lawful. They are safe. And they work. They save lives."

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott is known for his hardline "stop the boats" policy, where boats carrying people from persecution in regions such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran are sent back to where they boarded, which is generally Indonesia.

Europe is struggling as hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants arrive on its doorstep from Africa. Like Australia, the UK has adopted a hardline policy to try and discourage people from making the trip. The UK government has also promised to seize the wages of illegal migrants. A softer approach in Germany, which recently announced all Syrian refugees can stay in the country, has increased the influx of refugees there, with 800,000 expected to seek asylum this year.

As the refugee emergency in Europe becomes more worrying and the region searches desperately for a solution, the Times said looking to Australia is not the answer. It called Abbott's policy "inhumane, of dubious legality and strikingly at odds with the country’s tradition of welcoming people fleeing persecution and war."

Dutton strongly disagreed. He pointed to the reduced death under his government's policy, claiming 1,200 people died travelling in unseaworthy boats to Australia between 2008 and 2013, when the previous government was in power. In the first year of the current government commencing Sept. 2013, 12 boats have been confirmed as being intercepted by authorities with no deaths recorded. Since then, the government's official statements claim that no boats have been intercepted in Australian waters.

"Appropriate inquiry and research of the facts about these policies would show that the often vague, untested and unsubstantiated claims by opponents of these policies are lacking in credibility," Dutton said in the statement.

In this file photo from Dec. 15, 2010, people clamber on the rocky shore on Christmas Island, Australia, during a rescue attempt as a boat breaks up in the background, killing 48 people.

Image: AP Images

What is the Australian government's refugee policy?

The government policy makes up part of Operation Sovereign Borders, a controversial border protection operation aimed at reducing the number of people travelling by boat to Australia. The conservative government claims it is helping save lives, yet its critics say the operation is encouraging legitimate refugees to remain in their hostile homeland or be detained in appalling conditions.

Operation Sovereign Borders sees boats that are seeking to enter Australia illegally removed from Australian waters and sent for processing in island nations, such as Nauru or Papua New Guinea. Anyone without a visa coming to Australia by boat is not able to enter the country, this includes families, children and unaccompanied children — despite figures showing 90% of those in boats are genuine refugees.

The issue in Australia has been highly contentious for years, sparking much political debate. The previous Australian Labor government had a similar approach to stem the influx of boat arrivals. In 2013, it struck a deal with Papua New Guinea to send those arriving by boat to Manus Island and resettle any asylum seekers who were found to be legitimate refugees.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said at the time: "From now on, any asylum-seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as refugees." Protests erupted around the country, and Amnesty International's Graeme McGregor said: "Mark this day in history as the day Australia decided to turn its back on the world’s most vulnerable people, closed the door and threw away the key."

Inside Australia's offshore processing centres

The conditions in the processing centres have been described as "degrading," and "cruel" by the United Nations, with constant claims of sexual abuse and child abuse. Asylum seekers on Narau are also commonly referred to as their boat number, rather than their name.

Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were caught in Indonesian waters while trying to sail to Australia in 2009.

Image: AP Images

In a Senate inquiry report released on Monday, the current government has been advised to remove all children and conduct a full audit of the criminal allegations and living standards in the regional processing centre (RPC).

Contractor staff on Nauru have been disciplined after 30 formal allegations of child abuse, 15 allegations of sexual assault or rape and four allegations of exchanging sexual favours for contraband items like cigarettes, according to the report. Six employees of Transfield Services were dismissed, along with another 11 contractors with Wilson Security over similar allegations.

A nurse who was visiting as a consultant, Alanna Maycock, said the RPC on Nauru was "a place where a cycle of human rights abuse existed and was continuing and intensifying," according to the report. While former Save the Children Australia worker Samantha Betts said reports of sexual, physical and emotional abuse were frequently made to the department, but ignored. Transfield Services rejected both these claims.

The inquiry concluded the conditions on Narau are of an "unacceptably low standard," and that the evidence shows it is impossible to guarantee an acceptable standard to protect the rights of asylum seekers in the processing centre. It called for the Australian government to step in.

"While women continue to experience sexual violence, sexual harassment and sexual exploitation and while children continue to experience abuse at the hands of family members or staff of contracted service providers, with no option to be removed from danger, the onus is on the Australian Government to intervene," it stated.

An Australian government poster.

Image: Australian government

Is this what Europe needs?

Abbott spoke out following the death of more than 800 refugees heading for Europe, who died as their boat capsized off the coast of Libya in April. He advised Europe to adopt "very strong policies" to end the people smuggling trade across the Mediterranean.

"We have got hundreds, maybe thousands of people drowning in the attempts to get from Africa to Europe," Abbott told ABC News. "The only way you can stop the deaths is to stop the people smuggling trade. The only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats."

The situation has deteriorated in Europe significantly since the start of the year, with 340,000 migrants and refugees paying people smugglers to travel in boats across the Mediterranean from war-torn regions in the past seven months.

Many people looking for a solution in Europe have looked to Australia for guidance on the ongoing humanitarian crisis, despite Australia's controversial policy. The Times reported that European leaders have even travelled to Australia on a fact-finding mission. Others are less excited about implementing Abbott's approach.

"The Australian model may seem attractive to politicians," Leonard Doyle, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration told the Times. "Politicians love fences, but what fences do is create a market for smugglers and major humanitarian problems."

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